Every beginner guitarist wants to play his favorite song. Because of this, perhaps many take the tool in their hands. However, choosing the parts yourself is a very difficult task for a beginner, especially if you do not know the notes. Here tablatures come to the aid - simple and understandable.
How to read tablature?
These forms of musical notation are purely guitar, they do not exist, say, for the piano, since the main way to transmit information about a musical work here is digital notation of frets. Below we will consider how to read tablatures correctly . And immediately it is worth noting that this is the most simplified way of transmitting musical symbols, which everyone can master.
Key Features
And yet, how to read tablatures? To begin with, it should be understood that this form of musical notation has never been the main means of reading music, and never will be.
All professional musicians, including guitarists, play only by notes or just by ear. Tablature file will only help a beginner to better navigate in finding the right notes and the principles of building chords and intervals. It is very simple and convenient, but far from perfect, it is not possible to show very many musical elements that are present in the notes. You should remember this during training, and, in addition to using tablatures, try to devote time to the gradual development of musical notation.
Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantage of this form of musical notation is simplicity and convenience. You do not have to think about where which note is and which string you need to pinch. To understand how to read tablatures, just know the numbers and remember some characters. However, there are quite a few shortcomings, the most important of which is the lack of duration of notes. Of course, with different lengths, the numbers will be at different distances, this will give an approximate idea of the duration, but they will not form a clear picture. Then how to read the tablature correctly? The answer is simple - having listened to this song before, or having notes or a rhythmic pattern of a song on hand. In addition, the tab may not indicate the measure size, tempo, and many other fairly important musical elements.
String arrangement
The tablature shows six guitar strings, numbers corresponding to fret numbers, as well as various symbols showing different tricks of the game. On the left edge you will see six letters. These are Latin notes for notes that may not always be indicated in some tablature programs such as Guitar Pro. The image below provides a tab for the standard guitar system. The strings are located from top to bottom, at the top there is the first - the thinnest and highest sounding string (notes E, or E), below - the thickest and lowest, sixth (also mi, but two octaves lower). Next, the second string is the note si, or B; the third is the note salt, or G; the fourth is re, or D; and the fifth - la, or A. Latin designations should be known, they will not only allow you to understand how to read tablatures for guitars, but also help in reading chords.
Key notation
Now about the notation itself. As for the numbers, everything is clear here - they correspond to the number of frets. The number 0 is a string in the open position, when no fret is pinched. The number 1 is the first fret, 2 is the second fret, and so on. When the numbers on the tablature stand together, in one vertical line, this means that they all need to be extracted at the same time. But sometimes other symbols can be found: various crosses, arrows, and others. They appear when using various game techniques. The cross, instead of a number, means a muffled sound in which the fret is not clamped completely - the guitarist only
touching the string in the right place. Here one more drawback of tablatures appears: the cross itself does not mean any kind, and you will have to guess where to get it, judging by the rest of the numbers on the tablature. Arc up arrow means pulling up a string or band. To extract a band, you must hit the string and pull up or down with your left hand. The number at the arrow indicates the interval over which the band must be pulled. If it is ½, you need to tighten the string half a ton, or one fret. The word "full" means a lift to a whole tone, or two frets.
The next symbol is glissando, in other words, glide. Usually it looks like this: (\), or like this: (/). As you might have guessed, it means slipping from one fret to another, while the string continues to sound. Glissando can occur in the form --7 \ 2--, which means that you need to hit the string in the seventh fret and move to the second without drowning the string. There is another symbol - legato, on the tablature it is usually indicated by the letters p and h, which means the descending and ascending legato, respectively. It has the form --3h5--. To extract it, you need to hit the string in the third fret and put the finger of your left hand in the fifth fret, without muffling the string. In addition to all these signs, there are also many others, you can remember them already in the process of learning the game.
Bass tabs
Bass tablatures are built on the same principle, only they will not have the upper two strings. Strings can be added down, depending on their number on this instrument, as well as those elements that are used only when playing the bass guitar. For example, a blind blow, which is denoted by the letter S. Blind is a special technique in which a musician hits the string with his thumb so that it hits the bar. Blind is found mainly on bass tablature and very rarely on simple guitar, while the technique of playing blind on a regular guitar is radically different. But in general, bass tablatures are no different from ordinary tabs, so the question of how to learn to read tablature of this type should not arise.
Guitar pro
Finding any tab you want is quite simple, many are placed directly on special sites. However, there is a very convenient program in which you can not only read tablatures, but easily write them yourself. It is called Guitar Pro, all beginners and already able guitarists are recommended to install it on their personal computer. With this program, you will no longer have a question about how to read tablatures. It is simple and convenient to use, very quickly absorbed, has many functions. In addition to the tabs, there are also notes of the composition in it, which means that there will be no problem determining their duration. In addition, right in the program you can listen to the tablature thanks to specially pre-recorded midi-files. At the same time, in addition to guitar tabs, Guitar Pro works with notes for piano, for various orchestral instruments, bass guitars and even with parts for drums. So you can safely write whole symphonies in this wonderful program.
Finally
Having mastered all the above principles of constructing guitar tablatures, you will facilitate and speed up your learning. These forms of notation will not give you complete knowledge of musical grammar, they will only help you learn any kind of songs and parts without any problems. In general, just for this tablatures are intended. For beginner guitarists, it is recommended to quickly master them and go further in the study of music, and use such forms as an auxiliary tool.